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‘Genius Hour’ promotes initiative

Students at St. James/Seton School in Omaha have a new opportunity to pursue their passions. It’s called the Genius Hour.

Principal William Kelly said the idea came from the Google company, which gives its employees time every week to develop their own ideas and innovations that would be good for the company.

"We’re taking that concept and saying to students, ‘What do you want to learn about, what are you most interested in?’" Kelly said. And with some basic guidelines and deadlines, students develop projects and present them to their classes.

"So, it’s a little bit like the real world, in which someone doesn’t tell you exactly how the project is supposed to look in the end … you have some freedom to create it as you see fit."

"This is a way to get students excited about learning because they’re using their own passion projects," Kelly said.

Sometime during the school year, every student in the school, under the direction of teacher and Genius Hour coordinator Tara Neaderhiser, will complete and present a project.